I am shopping for a DSLR that I can take on horseback rides. It needs to be tough - and water and dust resistant.I had it narrowed down to the Canon 7D which has nice sealing - but the mid range lenses aren't sealed. (For example I've looked at the 18 to 200 mm IS) If I start looking at lenses that have weather sealing - they get big and expensive - and I have to get 2 lenses. I've been steered to the L series lenses. Not sure it's worth buying a sealed camera with a non sealed lens.

Is there a sealed lens that you suggest using with the 7D?

I then looked at the Nikon D7000 with the Nikon 28 to 300mm lens which is sealed. Is this the right way to go? How does the 7000 compare with the 7D?

To throw out into consideration - Pentax's DSLR line is weather sealed. If your budget is tighter their K-30 might be your best option, and if you have more to spend you probably want to take a look at the K-5.

Thanks for the replies. This is my first DSLR. (I shot film SLR's a long time ago) I did a lot of sailing back then and the salt air finally locked up the shutter mechanism.

I will be shooting from horseback - on dusty trails. Mainly shooting other horses, scenery, cows running around, etc. The camera will go into my horses' padded saddlebag when riding. So it will take a lot of bouncing - and some bumping - and be in a dirty environment. I tried out a Canon T4i (Rebel) and thought that I would destroy the camera. I took photos of sheep shearing (not on horseback) and there was dirt and hay flying though the air. I ended up having to grab for sheep with the camera around my neck - no time to put it down. I also got kit zoom (plastic) lenses - and the photos were not as good as I had hoped.

I'm trying to keep to a $2K (US) budget for camera and 1 lens. I like the combo lens (28 to 300mm) or (18 to 200 mm) that Nikon offers as I don't have to change lenses while on horseback. (not sure which lens is better.) Or I could go with 2 lenses - as long as they are sealed.

I still like the Canon 7D option - mainly because I've spent more time looking at it. But can't find sealed lenses that are reasonable size and cost. (Am I missing something?)

How does the 7D compare to the D7000.Are there other Nikons I should be looking at? (Again with a $2k budget for camera and 1 lens)Haven't done much research on the Pentax.

Usually the plastic housing doesn't break - no matter what you du unless you want to drive your car over it. I'd take a look at Pentax indeed. Sensorwise they are great and the K-5 was on top of the list of the image quality for a lot of time, they are fast, water resistant and at least the bodies are pretty affordable. The lenses are about on the same price level as other brands but they offer weather sealed ones in their mid range. The image stabilizer is inside the body so you can even use old lenses and those that don't offer IS (if you look at other brands). They also have the cheaper and smaller K-30 - and here I found a pretty nice video about it and its water resistance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMfSRpEASg

Thanks Jiko - I ended up choosing a Cannon 5D Mark iii. A friend of mine came to visit and let me try theirs.It's bigger and more expensive than I originally wanted - but now I know if I don't take good shots - it's me - not the camera.